Recorded in several spellings including Langstrath, Langstroth, Langstreth, Longstreeth, and Longstreet, this is an ancient English surname. It is residential and may be from the place known as Langstrothdale in North Yorkshire, or from a now 'lost' medieval village believed to have been in the Cumbria region on the Scottish borders, or it is topographical and described a person who lived by a long marshy area. The word "strother" meaning marsh land was Olde English pre 7th century. This type of residential surname was the earliest to be created, when to describe a person by where he originated from, or from a natural feature in the countryside where he lived, made for easy identification. The surname is well recorded from about the Tudor period when the first known recording was that of Richard Langstrothyr. He appears in the register of students of Oxford University in the year 1448, whilst Richard Langstother, who may have been his brother, appears in the same register, but two years later in 1450. Other recordings taken from surviving registers include John Langstreth of the parish of Tatham in Lancashire in 1666, whilst Elizabeth Longstreeth married Richard Holden at the church of St Katherines by the Tower (of London) on May 3rd 1672.

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